Electrically controlled apparatus for printing on moving articles



Jan. 14, 1958 H. PORTER, JR., ETAL 2,819,671

ELECTRICALLY CONTROLLED APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON MOVING ARTICLES FiledMay 18. 1956 5 ISheets-Sham; 1

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Jan. 14, 1958 H.' PoRTER, JR., ETAI- ELECTRICALLY CONTRGLLED APPARATUSFOR PRINTING ON MOVING ARTICLES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 18, `195e'INV Rs.

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HAROLD PORTE/mfr?.

Jan. 14, 1958 H. PORTER, JR.. ETAL 2,819,671

ELECTRICALLY CONTRCLLED APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON MOVING ARTICLES FiledMay 1s. 195e l \sheetssheet 5 Ill A N nf IN VEN TORS.

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United States Pate ELECTRICALLY CONTROLLED APPARATUS FR PRINTING 0NMOVING ARTICLES Harold Porter, Jr., Armonk, and William H. Giona,

Flushing, N. Y., assignors to Lily-Tulip Cup Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application May 18, 1956, Serial No.585,701

6 Claims, (CL 10b-44) This invention relates to apparatus for markingcode numbers or other desirable indicia on successive articles of aseries of moving articles, and more especially to electricallycontrolled apparatus for printing on articles while in motion.

The invention is particularly useful in marking on n the recessedclosure lids of lled receptacles made of paper or other yieldablematerial and is readily adapted for use at the output end of a fillingand capping machine Where such filled receptacles are being fed in alinear series.

Heretofore it has been customary in printing upon recessedl lids tointerrupt the feed movement of individual receptacles at the printingzone and retain the same at restduring the marking interval. This wasusually done by intercepting Ia given receptacle with a positive stopand permitting the conveyor belt to slip beneath it while carryingsucceeding receptacles forward. The result is that succeedingreceptacles bunch-up behind the one being marked. This not only requiredadditional stop means to keep the succeeding articles from interferingwith the ones at rest but `caused substantially increased power loss dueto the continued movement of the belt beneath a plurality of containersheld at rest. Another method was to intermittently stop the feed, butthis was even less desirable.

Additionally, in either procedure the intermittent stopping of thereceptacle during the time of printing causes a bottleneck in theproduction line,l and therefore slows up the rate of filling andcapping. Although proposals have 'been made to print on articles whilemoving, no apparatus has heretofore 'been devised which would meet therequirements of printing on moving receptacles of the characterdescribed in a satisfactory manner under automatic control of the movingreceptacle.

An object of the invention is to provide apparatus 0 which overcomes theabove-mentioned difficulties and accomplishes the desired results in anexpeditious manner.

Another object is to provide apparatus which prints clearly and sharplyon the lids of iilled receptacles while the same are continuously movingand according to cyclical control operated by the movement of thearticle to be printed.

Further objects, features and yadvantages of the invention willmorefully appear from the following description, taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings in which:

` Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the invention;

v Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the printing unit shown in Fig.l, with the cover removed and certain parts broken away to show theinterior mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a partial top plan view showing the reciprocating head forminga part of the unit shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is -a top view showing a type holder, type and ink pad forming apart of the mechanism shown in Fi'gLfB;

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Figs. 5 and 6 -are front elevational views of certain features shown inFigs. 2, 3 and 4, showing the parts in two different positions ofoperation and;

Fig. 7 is an electric circuit diagram showing the electrical means ofthe cyclical control of the apparatus shown in Fig. l.

Referring more particularly to Fig. l, supporting frame for theapparatus is designated in Igeneral as l0 and may conveniently form apart of a machine in conjunction with which the present invention isadapted to be used, such for example as a machine for filling andcapping containers which are to be marked with a suitable code number orother indicia. Conveyor means y comprising a conveyor belt 11 and guiderods such as l2 serve to feed articles to be printed. In the presentembodiment these articles are receptacles designated R having closurecovers designated C and the receptacles are adapted to be linearly fedin a series in what will 'ce termed a longitudinal direction asindicated by the arrow. A marking or printing unit designated in generalas 13 is positioned at what will be termed the printing station forprinting upon the covers of successive receptacles during the continuousmovement of said receptacles past the printing station.

The printing unit 13 is slidably mounted on guide rods such as 14 andextending upwardly from a cross bar i5' in which is threadingly engageda jack-screw lo whose upper end engages the frame of the printing unitR3 which may be adjusted to the proper vertical position by rotation ofthe hand wheel 17 and may be locked in adjusted position, commensuratewith the height of the article to be printed, by thumb screws such as13. The cross bar l5 is slidably disposed on horizontal guide rods 19permitting adjustable movement of the printing unit in -a directiontransverse the path of movement of the receptacles, and the unit 13 maybe secured in the desired adjusted position by means of thumb screwssuch as 20.

A clamp block 21 is mounted for vertical adjustment on the upper end 22of one of the guide rods lli and may be adjustably secured thereon bymeans of thumb screws such as 23. A supportnig angle arm 2d has one legsecured to the block 2 by means of a thumb screw 25 passing through ahorizontal slot in the arm 2a to provide for adjustment of said arm in adirection transverse to the said path of movement; and the other leg oflthe arm 24 serves to support an electrical switch control boxdesignated in general as 26 adjustably secured to the arm 24 by means ofa thumb screw 27 passing through a slot in the arm 24 to provide foradjustment of said box in a longitudinal direction.

Printing unit The printing unit i3 will now be described with referencemore particularly to Figs. 2 and 3. The printing unit frame isdesignated as 28 and is provided with a pair of vertical guide rods 29on which is supported for vertical movement a reciprocable head in theform of a slide block 30 which carries on its lower end a type holderassembly designated in general as 3l. ln the present embodiment the typeis adapted to print the desired code marking in ink supplied by an inkpad assembly designated in general as 32. The reciprocating printinghead 30 is moved downwardly on its printing stroke by means of a lever33 pivotally supported as at 3d. PThe forward end of the lever 33 isprovided with a yoke 35 in which is slidably engaged a block 36rotatably mounted on a pivot 37 which is secured to the head 3h by meansof rearwardly extending lugs (Fig. 3) such as 38. The lever 33 isprovided with an arm 33a which extends downwardly below the pivot 34 andis operatively connected to the forward end of an armature 39 by meansof a slide block and pivot arrangement similar to 36 and 37 abovedescribed. The armature 39 passes rearwardly through a cooperatingelectric solenoid d@ which serves when energized to rotate the lever 33in a clockwise direction on the stamping or printing stroke, and theparts are moved on the return stroke by a helical tension spring 41. Thetravel of the lever on the return stroke, in an anti-clockwise directionis limited by a rearwardly extending arm 33h, engaging a resilient padd?. mounted on the solenoid 40.

Suitable locking mechanism is provided to prevent the downward movementof the type head 31 when no article is in position to be marked. A rod43 is slidably mounted in the reciprocating head 30 and is urgeddownwardly by helical compression springs 64. The lower end of the rod43 acts as a feeler finger. The rod carries secured thereto a tripper i5provided with a rearwardly extending yoke having arms 45a disposed aboveand in register with forwardly extending arms 46a provided `on a latch46 which is normally urged in an anti-clockwise direction by a weightedarm 4617 and which is provided with upwardly extending latch arms 46cadapted to engage a stop 33e on the forward end of the lever 33.Accordingly, if the head 36 moves downwardly and the lower end of therod 43 engages against a closure cap C of the container P., as in Fig.6, the rod d3 moves upwardly relative to the head 36 thereby positioningthe tripper arms 45a in inactive position so that the lever 33 cancontinue its movement on the printing stroke. However, if no receptacleis in position, the lower end of rod 43 will continue to move down to aposition below that shown in Fig. 6 and at that point the tripper arms45a will engage the latch arms 46a to rotate the latch 46 in a clockwisedirection so that the arms 46c will engage the stop 33C and thus preventthe printing head from moving to its printing position. The arm 45 isalso provided with a forwardly extending position (15b which is disposedin vertical alignment with a finger piece 47 formed on the sliding head361. By engaging the position 45b with one finger of the extension 47with the other, the arm 45 may be moved upwardly to compress the springs44, thus permitting the type holder assembly 31 to be readily removed,said assembly 31 being held in seated position by the trip arm 45.

Type holder The type holder 3l will be more particularly referred towith reference to Figs. 4, and 6. The type holder 31 is slidably mountedon a pair of parallel guide rods 48 (Fig. 4) which extend in a directionparallel to the longitudinal path of travel of the articles to beprinted, as designated by the arrows in Figs. 4, 5 and 6, serving toprovide movement of the type holder in a direction of the path of travelof said articles relative to the reciprocating axis of the head 3:0while at the same time moving said type directly with the head 30. Thehead 31 is resiliently urged in a direction opposite to the movement ofthe articles to be printed, to the position shown in Fig. 5, by means ofhelical compression springs such as 49. The printing head 31 is providedwith register pins such as 50 held in limited extended position byhelical compression springs such as 51 so as to hold the lower pointedends of the pins 50 below the printing face of type 52 carried on thehead 51 (Fig. 5) while permitting the pins to be moved upwardly tosubstantially the printing face of the type 52 when in engagement withthe article to be printed (Fig. 6). The particular sliding type holderabove described is not claimed per se herein since it forms the subjectmatter of the co-pending application of William H. Glunz, filed on May18, 1956, Serial No. 585,872 where this unit is more particul-arlydescribed and claimed.

Electrical circuit The cyclical electrical control means for theprinting unit 1.3 will now be described with particular reference toFig. 7 from which it will be seen that electrical solenoid 40 foractuating the reciprocating head 30 is supplied by electrical circuitdesignated as 6060a. This supply circuit is controlled by electricallyactuated time delay switching means comprising a first switch 61 and asecond switch 62 which is provided with delayed opening contacts andthese switches are actuated by a solenoid .63 provided with anelectrical supply circuit 64-64a. The supply circuit 64-64a is providedwith a control switch 65. The control switch 65 is movable to open andclosed positions by an arm 66 (Fig. 1) whose outer end is curved and isdisposed in the path of movement of the articles to be printed upon,such as the receptacles R, and is positioned in advance of the printingstation. The control switch arm 66 may be positioned in the desiredlocation by vertical, longitudinal, and lateral adjustment of the switchcontrol box 26 by the means previously described. y

The switching means is adjusted to operate in the following manner. As areceptacle R moves into engagement with the arm 66 the switch 65, whichis initially closed, is opened to thereby de-energize the solenoid 63,whereupon its armature moves to de-energized position to thereby openswitch 61 and close the time relay switch 62. As the moving receptacle Rpasses out of engagement with the ann 66, the switch 65 is closed,thereby energizing the solenoid 63 which closes switch 61 and therebycompletes the energizing circuit for the relay 40.' This in turn movesthe printing head 30 downwardly 4c'arrying the pointed ends of the pins50 (Fig. 5) into registering contact with the upper face of the cover.Cof a receptacle R and the slight indentation of the pins into the coverserves to hold the type in register and causes the type to be moved withthe receptacle during the printing engagement of the type with the faceof the cover (Fig. 6). lust before the type holder has moved to thelimit of its sliding movement the time relay switch 62 is opened by itspneumatic control means, vand the energizing circuit to solenoid 40(Fig. 7) is broken, re'-,l leasing the printing head 30 which is then,moved upwardly on its return stroke by the helical spring 41 (Fig. 2)thus restoring the parts for the second cycle of operations. In theabove described electrical circuit we have obtained entirelysatisfactory results by using for switches 61 and 62 time delay relayunit No. 849-AX, manufactured by Allen-Bradley Co., Milwaukee,Wisconsin, which permits suitable adjustment of the time delay to thedesired interval of printing time adapted for the speed of conveyor feedof the articles to be printed upon. For the control switch 65 we haveused with entire satisfaction Acro switch TD-48L operated by `a springbiased arm serving to urge the switch to closed position.

Operation Referring more particularly to Figs. 1 and 7: As the series ofreceptacles R are fed forward by the conveyor belt 11 between the guiderails 12, succeeding receptacles pass in front of the control box 26 andinto engagement with the switch arm 66, which is yieldably held in thepath of movement by a spring. As a moving receptacle moves the arm 66outwardly the switch 65 (Fig. 7) is moved to open position therebyde-energizing the solenoid 63 which opens the quick operating switch 61and closes the time relay switch 62 in series therewith. As a receptaclepasses beyond the end of the arm 66 the arm moves inwardly to itsinitial position to thereby close the contact 65 which energizes a relay63 to thereby close contact 61 and complete the circuit to energize theprintstroke. Shortly before the type 52 (Fig. 5) comes into printingengagement with the cover C the register pins l50 `engage the cover andthis serves to carry the type holder 31 in the` direction of movement ofthe receptacle R and at the same speed of tra-vel, at which. time thetype has' been brought into printing engagement with the surface to beprinted. The time delay switch 62 is so adjusted that it remains closedduring this travel of the type in printing engagement with the cover Cand opens just before the type holder 31 reaches the end of its slidingstroke. Upon the opening of the time relay switch 62 the solenoid 40 isdeenergized and the printing head is returned to its upper position bythe tension spring 41 (Fig. 2.) and the cycle of operation is concludedand the parts are in position to repeat the sequence as successivecontainers are fed to the printing station.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that the total time duringwhich the time relay 62 is closed covers the interval between theopening of switch 61 and the time required for the printing head to movethe type into printing engagement and the movement of the type with thearticle being printed.

Having thus described our invention with particularity with reference tothe preferred apparatus, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art,after understanding our invention, that changes and modifications may bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of our in vention, andwe aim in the appended claims to cover such changes and modifications asare within the scope of the invention.

What we claim is:

1. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of areciprocable printing head, a type holder secured to said headsupporting type movable with said head into printing engagement with anarticle to be printed and movable with respect to said head in adirection transverse to a direction of reciprocation for limited travelwith an article to be printed upon, electrical actuating means forreciprocating said head, an electrical supply circuit for said actuatingmeans, electrically actuated time delay switching means in said circuit,a supply circuit for said switching means, and a control switch for saidswitching supply circuit responsive to the movement of an article intothe printing zone, said time delay switching means providing a timedelay switch to maintain said actuating means energized for a timeinterval substantially equal to the sum of the time of the printingstroke of the reciprocating head and the time of moving of said type ina direction. transverse to the direction of reciprocation.

2. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of areciprocable printing head, a type holder secured to said headsupporting type movable with said head into printing engagement with anarticle to be printed and movable with respect to said head in a'direction transverse to a direction of reciprocation for limited travelwith an article to be printed upon, electrical actuating means forreciprocating said head, an electrical supply circuit for said actuatingmeans, electrically actuated time delay switch means in said circuit, asupply circuit for said switching means, and a control switch for saidswitching supply circuit, said control switch having an actuating memberdisposed in the path of travel of an article to be printed upon andbeing positioned in advance of the printing rene, said time delayswitching means providing a time delay switch to maintain said actuatingmeans energized for a time interval equal to the sum of the time of theprinting stroke of the reciprocating head and the time of moving of saidtype in a direction transverse to the direction of reciprocation.

3. In apparatus of the character described, a combination of areciprocable printing head, a type holder secured to said headsupporting type movable with said head into printing engagement with anarticle to be printed and movable with respect to said head in adirection transverse to a direction of reciprocation` for limited travelwith an article to be printed upon, electrical ac tuating means forreciprocating said head, an electrical supply circuit for said actuatingmeans, switching means in said actuating circuit, said switching meanscomprising an initially closed quick operating switch and an initiallyopen delayed opening switch in series in said actuating circuit and asolenoid for operating said quick operating switch and delayed openingswitch in such sequence as simultaneously to open said quick operatingswitch and close said time delayed switch and thereafter to close saidquick opening switch while the opening of said time delayed switch isdelayed, a supply circuit for operating said solenoid, a control switchfor said solenoid supply circuit, said control switch having anactuating arm disposed in the path of travel of an article to be printedupon and being positioned in advance of the printing zone, said delayedopening contact switch providing a time delay equal to the sum of thetime interval between the opening and closing of said quick operatingswitch and the time of the printing stroke of the reciprocating head andthe time o moving of said type in a direction transverse to thedirection of reciprocation.

4. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of conveyormeans for moving a series of articles in a longitudinal path of travelpast a printing station, a reciprocable head disposed at said station, atype holder secured to said head supporting type for movement with saidhead into printing engagement with a moving article and slidable in adirection parallel to said path of movement with an article during saidprinting engagement, electrical actuating means for reciprocating saidhead, an electrical supply circuit for said actuat ing means, controlmeans for said supply circuit operable by movement of an article intoprinting position to en ergize said actuating means and time delay meansfor dta-energizing said actuating means after said printing type hasmoved into printing engagement with an article and has moved with anarticle in a direction parallel to said path of movement.

5. In apparatus of the character described, the combination of conveyormeans for moving a series of articles in a longitudinal path of travelpast a printing station, a reciprocable head disposed at said station, atype holder secured to said head supporting type for movement with saidhead into printing engagement with a moving article and slidable in adirection parallel to said path of movement with an article during saidprinting engagement, electrical actuating means for reciprocating saidhead, an electrical supply circuit for said actuat ing means,electrically actuated time delay switching means in said circuit, asupply circuit for said switching means, and a control switch for saidswitching supply circuit, said control switch having an actuating arm inthe path of travel of an article to be printed upon and being positionedin advance of said printing station, said time delay switching meansproviding a delayed opening switch to maintain said actuating meansenergized during the reciprocal movement of said type and the movementof said type in a direction parallel to the path of the moving article,whereby said type is movable into printing engagement and held inprinting engagement while moving with the article being printed.

6. ln apparatus of the character described, the combination of conveyormeans for moving a series of articles in a longitudinal path of travelpast a printing station, a reciprocable head disposed at said station, atype holder secured to said head supporting type for movement with saidhead into printing engagement with a moving article and slidable for alimited path of travel in a direction parallel to said path of movementwith an article during said print ing engagement, electrical actuatingmeans for reciprocating said head, an electrical supply circuit -forsaid actuat ing means, a quick operating switch and a delayed open ingswitch in series in said supply circuit, control means' fori saidswitches comprising means operable by the movement ofy an article towardand in advance of said printing station lto open said quick openingswitch and close said delayed opening switch and operable when saidarticle has movedinto alignment with said station to close said circuitthrough said delayed opening switch and under its control to therebyenergize said electrical actuating means, said delayed opening switchproviding a delay 8 t suicient to maintain saidl actuating meansenergized duri ing the reciprocal printing stroke of said type intoprinting engagement with 'said article and the movement of said typeAwhile in printing engagement with the moving article and to de-energizesaid actuating means before saidtype has reached the limit of itstravel.

No references cited.

